ance of purchase money for such land at the time provided in such contracts for the sale thereof, convey and release to the holders of such contracts all its title, interest, and estate in and to the land embraced in such contracts."

SEC. 2. That Congress shall at all times have the power to alter, amend, or repeal this act." "SEC. 3. Where the line of such railway is now located within the limits of any State, or where such line is now located within a Territory which may hereafter become a State, such State, or such Territory when it shall become a State, shall be empowered to require such corporation to become incorporated within such State or States as may be provided by the laws thereof."

The President approved the measure March 3. International Money Conference. The Congress passed and the President approved the following measure "to provide for the representation of the United States by commissioners at any international money conference hereafter to be called:

Be it enacted, etc., That whenever after March 4, 1897, the President of the United States shall determine that the United States should be represented at any international conference called by the United States or any other country with a view to securing by international agreement a fixity of relative value between gold and silver as money by means of a common ratio between these metals, with free mintage at such ratio, he is hereby authorized to appoint five or more commissioners to such international conference; and for compensation of said commissioners, and for all reasonable expenses connected therewith, to be approved by the Secretary of State, including the proportion to be paid by the United States of the joint expenses of any such conference, the sum of $100,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated.

"SEC. 2. That the President of the United States is hereby authorized, in the name of the Government of the United States, to call, in his discretion, such international conference, to assemble at such point as may be agreed upon.

"And he is further authorized, if in his judgment the purpose specified in the first section hereof can thus be better attained, to appoint one or more special commissioners or envoys to such of the nations of Europe as he may designate to seek by diplomatic negotiations an international agreement for the purpose specified in the first section hereof. And in case of such appointment so much of the appropriation herein made as shall be necessary shall be available for the proper expenses and compensation of such commissioners or envoys."

It may be worth while to quote from speeches made by three Senators representing the various views on the measure.

Mr. Chandler, of New Hampshire, said:

Mr. President, this bill represents a new movement beginning in the United States for the establishment of bimetallism, the unlimited coinage of silver and gold as standard money.

"The provisions of the bill are in the form desired by its friends; substantially in the language of three previous authorizations under which United States delegates were appointed to international monetary conferences, and of one under which no action was taken.

"It simply authorizes the coming President to appoint delegates to any conference which may be called by the United States or any other nation, and provides for paying their expenses.

"It does not compel the President to initiate an international conference, whether the time has arrived and due preparations have been made for it or not; and it is not desirable that such compul

sion should be ordered. The responsibility for action or nonaction will be his, and there need be no desire to take it from him in view of his utterance upon accepting the nomination of his party, namely:

"The Republican party has declared in favor of an international agreement, and if elected President it will be my duty to employ all proper means to promote it.'

The bill does not name the place where a conference must be held, but leaves that question to be settled according to the preferences of the nations which are to participate in it, and to the convenience of the greater number of the delegates. It would be exceedingly unwise to absolutely require that the conference shall be held in the United States.

"The bill does not undertake to declare what the

action of this Government will be in case the conference shall fail to establish bimetallism. To insert a legislative provision that in such an event the United States alone will proceed to the free coinage of silver would necessarily prevent a successful outcome of the conference if one ensues, and, moreover, would certainly defeat the passage of this bill through both Houses and its signature by the President. It would be as complete a rejection of the bill as would be a vote of the Senate to indefinitely postpone it, and the responsibility for the first defeat of the new movement for bimetallism would fatally rest upon those who claim to be the special champions of silver.

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Mr. President, this bill for an international bimetallic conference has been deliberately presented in a body a majority of whose members are well known to be in favor of the free coinage of silver by the United States independently of other nations, and who believe that no successful result will come from the conference. But it is presented to them in the belief and after the assurance that they are not unwilling to allow the experiment to be again tried, under favorable auspices, and with a universal hope that it may secure the adoption of a system of bimetallism by the leading commercial nations of the world.”

Mr. Stewart of Nevada said:

"There are many grave objections to international money which ought to make us hesitate before we enter into any compact with the world to have international money. In the first place, if we had an international money that was legal tender throughout the world our business would be subject to the fluctuations and changes of every country of the world. A business man would not only have to calculate about the business of his own country, but he would have to know the world in order to guard himself against fluctuations and disturbances which might occur anywhere. The idea that commerce can not be carried on without international money is against the experience of mankind. International money never has existed, to my knowledge, except in one instance. The Latin Union in 1865 formed a compact whereby the money of France, Italy, Greece, Belgium, and Switzerland should be a legal tender throughout that combination. But those were small countries, dependent upon France and under France's protection at the time. That is the only instance I know of international money.

"Money is essentially domestic. It is a great misfortune if it has to be exported and sold in other countries. We do not want to export our money. We should not make an effort to have a kind of money that can be exported as such. When we export our money we disturb our own business. We might as well export our tools and attempt to carry on farming and other vocations. If you export

money you take away the tools of commerce and destroy the prosperity of our country.

"The idea of an international conference to establish an international money is against experience, and will cause great inconvenience to every nation involved in the complication. We should avoid entangling alliances, if possible. This would be the worst; and we see what grows out of it. The London press say: If we make a bargain with you in regard to finances, you must make a bargain with us in regard to the tariff.' Thereby they assume to have jurisdiction in this country, to control our domestic affairs. Shall we surrender it? Shall we surrender to other countries that jurisdiction which we think so important? The Constitution enjoins upon Congress the duty to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin. Shall we give that up and say we have no right to coin money according to the Constitution? We exercised that right for over seventy years with great benefit to our country, and no inconvenience to anybody.

"So I am opposed to international money. I am opposed to allowing any other country to participate in our domestic affairs. I am in favor of the United States furnishing to the people an adequate supply of money. Individuals can not supply money. If they attempt it it is a criminal offense. The Government has a complete monopoly. It is a part of the sovereignty of the Government to exexcise that monopoly; and here we are going to Europe to ascertain whether we can legislate for the people of the United States. We are going to Europe, to our creditors, to the creditor nations of Europe, to the money powers of Europe, to see what measure they will mete out to us-what amount of money it is to their interest for us to have. The influence of Europe has brought this country to a sad condition."

Mr. Vilas, of Wisconsin, said:

"In what it says, still more in its implications, the bill is worse than useless-it is highly vicious. It is another of the ambiguous and timid utterances, of the projects, illusory-perhaps it is not too much to say deceitful-by which those of our countrymen who put faith in the declarations of Congress, as guided by wisdom, are perversely taught misconception of the true principles of government, of finance, and commerce.

"I do not charge that the scheme is not supported with sincerity, nor that, in fact, no conference is purposed to be held, or, if held, no practical result is anticipated-though for this there might be grounds of suspicion, as the Senator from California intimated yesterday. I take it rather as being what its words indicate, and there find it worse in effect than if merely insincere.

"It proffers again to the public as sound and wise the theory that bimetallism, in the sense that a stable, practicable, and useful standard of value may be compounded of the two metals, gold and silver, both enjoying free and unlimited coinage at an arbitrary ratio, if only many nations will try it together instead of ours alone. In that it defies the teaching of history, the advice of experience and experienced men, and the deductions of sound rea

son.

"No such bimetallism has ever existed in fact; in no country of the world does it exist now. Always and everywhere the concurrent unlimited coinage of the two metals, at any ratio, has resulted in the involuntary, unconscious, but inevitable fixation, for the time being, of one or the other metal as the standard, the vain though constant pursuit of an unattainable adjustment of relation between two different and contending standards at the same time by continual shifts of legislation, always ac

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companied by instability of values of the current coins, profitable only to money changers, but inflicting distress on business, and especial injury on those who depend on their labor for life and its enjoyments.

The pretense that any such system of bimetallism as created the standard out of both metals so that the value of both became necessary components of it, has ever had existence in the world is overwhelmed by the most trustworthy historical researches and must be consigned to the limbo where the ghosts of witchcraft, astrology, demonology, and kindred superstitions have been driven by the advancing intelligence and wisdom of mankind. "It would matter little if it were granted to have once had some footing on earth, for it has none now. As I said, no country furnishes example of it. Some base their reckoning of business on silver coins; some on gold; but none on a bimetallic standard. If such ever existed, then it has disappeared; and let him who would demand its resurrection confront the experienced progress of human intelligence.

"In either aspect the pursuit of a bimetallic standard of such a character is as idle as would be human effort to divert the Gulf Stream or warm the climate of the poles.

"But still more this bill implies to the public mind, and the inference is certain that such a stand

ard of value is far better and more desirable than the present. It is complete acknowledgment of the fundamental assumption of the Bryan campaign that a gold standard of monetary measurement, however freely silver may be used within the sphere of its practical usefulness, is wrong, not right, a false, not a true, standard, the product of evil law, not of just and natural law, an injury done society by human error which can be in some way redressed, and therefore ought to be. And it fairly leads to the recent issue that but for the wicked resistance of other countries the grievous wrong might be righted and the woes of mankind, here and elsewhere, vastly alleviated. Sir, no wonder men listened to the siren tones that lured them toward this fancied blessing and said, 'Let us try it alone, let us be free and independent, let us have the boon of prosperity, "without the consent of any other nation on earth."

"If they had been right in their basis, which this vicious and misleading bill now implies, they were right in this insistence, for it is assuredly a truth, sir, in my poor opinion, that any people under the sun may pursue alone the sound principles of finance, commerce, business, and good government, without any exception whatever of a single principle among all that rule those subjects, independently of other nations, and be gainers, not losers, by their faithful adherence to them. Not always to the full extent that co-operation with others would insure, but always to advantage and benefit far beyond any attainable by not pursuing them.

"Why, then, if the free coinage of both metals at an arbitrary ratio be a principle of finance or commerce valuable to many nations together, it is not, like all sound principles of finance and commerce, helpful to the nation which pursues it alone? Sir, that appears to me a question which the average common sense of man does not find answered by the refinements and mysticism which proffer all the benefits of principle only to some hopeless application of it; and it can not be thus answered to any sound judgment. The hills are green far away' is the sententious Irish saying that dispatches such fantastic theories."

Inspection of Tea.-The Senate passed Feb. 25, 1897, a bill to prevent the importation of impure and unwholesome tea; the House passed the meas

ure the following day, and the President approved it March 2. The act is as follows:

Be it enacted, etc., That from and after May 1, 1897, it shall be unlawful for any person or persons or corporation to import or bring into the United States any merchandise as tea which is inferior in purity, quality, and fitness for consumption to the standards provided in section 3 of this act, and the importation of all such merchandise is hereby prohibited.

SEC. 2. That immediately after the passage of this act, and on or before Feb. 15 of each year thereafter, the Secretary of the Treasury shall appoint a board, to consist of seven members, each of whom shall be an expert in teas, and who shall prepare and submit to him standard samples of tea; that the persons so appointed shall be at all times subject to removal by the said Secretary, and shall serve for the term of one year; that vacancies in the said board occurring by removal, death, resignation, or any other cause shall be forthwith filled by the Secretary of the Treasury by appointment, such appointee to hold for the unexpired term; that said board shall appoint a presiding officer, who shall be the medium of all communications to or from such board; that each member of said board shall receive as compensation the sum of $50 per annum, which, together with all necessary expenses while engaged upon the duty herein provided, shall be paid out of the appropriation for expenses of collecting the revenue from customs.'

'SEC. 3. That the Secretary of the Treasury, upon the recommendation of the said board, shall fix and establish uniform standards of purity, quality, and fitness for consumption of all kinds of teas imported into the United States, and shall procure and deposit in the customhouses of the ports of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and such other ports as he may determine, duplicate samples of such standards; that said Secretary shall procure a sufficient number of other duplicate samples of such standards to supply the importers and dealers in tea at all ports desiring the same at cost. All teas, or merchandise described as tea, of inferior purity, quality, and fitness for consumption to such standards shall be deemed within the prohibition of the

first section hereof.

"SEC. 4. That on making entry at the customhouses of all teas, or merchandise described as tea, imported into the United States, the importer or consignee shall give a bond to the collector of the port that such merchandise shall not be removed from the warehouse until released by the collector, after it shall have been duly examined with reference to its purity, quality, and fitness for consumption; that for the purpose of such examination samples of each line in every invoice of tea shall be submitted by the importer or consignee to the examiner, together with the sworn statement of such importer or consignee that such samples represent the true quality of each and every part of the invoice and accord with the specifications therein contained; or in the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, such samples shall be obtained by the examiner and compared by him with the standards established by this act; and in cases where said tea, or merchandise described as tea, is entered at ports where there is no qualified examiner as provided in section 7, the consignee or importer shall in the manner aforesaid furnish under oath a sample of each line of tea to the collector or other revenue officer to whom is committed the collection of duties, and said officer shall also draw or cause to be drawn samples of each line in every invoice and shall forward the same to a duly qualified examiner as provided in section 7: Provided, however, That the bond above required shall also be conditioned

for the payment of all customhouse charges which may attach to such merchandise prior to its being released or destroyed (as the case may be) under the provisions of this act.

"SEC. 5. That if, after an examination as provided in section 4, the tea is found by the examiner to be equal in purity, quality, and fitness for consumption to the standards hereinbefore provided, and no re-examination shall be demanded by the collector as provided in section 6, a permit shall at once be granted to the importer or consignee declaring the tea free from the control of the customs authorities; but if on examination such tea, or merchandise described as tea, is found, in the opinion of the examiner, to be inferior in purity, quality, and fitness for consumption to the said standards the importer or consignee shall be immediately notified, and the tea, or merchandise described as tea, shall not be released by the customhouse unless on a re-examination called for by the importer or consignee the finding of the examiner shall be found to be erroneous: Provided, That should a portion of the invoice be passed by the examiner, a permit shall be granted for that portion and the remainder held for further examination, as provided in section 6.

"SEC. 6. That in case the collector, importer, or consignee shall protest against the finding of the examiner, the matter in dispute shall be referred for decision to a board of three United States general appraisers, to be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, and if such board shall, after due examination, find the tea in question to be equal in purity, quality, and fitness for consumption to the proper standards, a permit shall be issued by the collector for its release and delivery to the importer; but if upon such final re-examination by such board the tea shall be found to be inferior in purity, quality, and fitness for consumption to the said standards, the importer or consignee shall give a bond, with security satisfactory to the collector, to export said tea, or merchandise described as tea, out of the limits of the United States within a period of six months after such final re-examination; and if the same shall not have been exported within the time specified, the collector, at the expi ration of that time, shall cause the same to be destroyed.

"SEC. 7. That the examination herein provided for shall be made by a duly qualified examiner at a port where standard samples are established, and where the merchandise is entered at ports where there is no qualified examiner the examination shall be made at that one of said ports which is nearest the port of entry, and that for this purpose samples of the merchandise, obtained in the manner prescribed by section 4 of this act, shall be forwarded to the proper port by the collector or chief officer at the port of entry; that in all cases of examination or re-examination of teas, or merchandise described as tea, by examiners or boards of United States general appraisers under the provisions of this act, the purity, quality, and fitness for consumption of the same shall be tested according to the usages and customs of the tea trade, including the testing of an infusion of the same in boiling water, and, if necessary, chemical analysis.

"SEC. 8. That in cases of re-examination of teas, or merchandise described as teas, by a board of United States general appraisers in pursuance of the provisions hereof, samples of the tea, or merchandise described as tea, in dispute, for transmission to such board for its decision, shall be put up and sealed by the examiner in the presence of the importer or consignee, if he so desires, and transmitted to such board, together with a copy of the finding of the examiner, setting forth the cause of

condemnation and the claim or ground of the protest of the importer relating to the same, such samples, and the papers therewith, to be distinguished by such mark that the same may be identified; that the decision of such board shall be in writing, signed by them, and transmitted, together with the record and samples, within three days after the rendition thereof, to the collector, who shall forthwith furnish the examiner and the importer or consignee with a copy of said decision or finding. The board of United States general appraisers herein provided for shall be authorized to obtain the advice, when necessary, of persons skilled in the examination of teas, who shall each receive for his services in any particular case a compensation not exceeding $5. "SEC. 9. That no imported teas which have been rejected by a customs examiner or by a board of United States general appraisers, and exported under the provisions of this act, shall be reimported into the United States under the penalty of forfeiture for a violation of this prohibition.

"SEC. 10. That the Secretary of the Treasury shall have the power to enforce the provisions of this act by appropriate regulations.

SEC. 11. That teas actually on shipboard for shipment to the United States at the time of the passage of this act shall not be subject to the prohibition hereof, but the provisions of the act entitled An Act to prevent the importation of adulterated and spurious teas,' approved March 2, 1883, shall be applicable thereto.

"SEC. 12. That the act entitled 'An Act to prevent the importation of adulterated and spurious teas,' approved March 2, 1883, is hereby repealed, such repeal to take effect on the date on which this act goes into effect."

In explanation of the purpose of the act Mr. Payne, of New York, said:

Mr. Speaker, in 1883 Congress passed an act to prevent the importation of impure and unwholesome tea, or tea harmful to health. We tried then to make as good a law as we knew how; but notwithstanding the stringency of that law, which provided for the re-exportation of all teas which did not come up to the standard, we find that to-day more poor, unwholesome tea, more tea sweepings and drug teas, are thrown upon the American market than upon all the other markets of the world. Our people consume more bad tea than all other countries. This is a subject about which we have heard a good deal for several years past in the Committee on Ways and Means. People interested in the tea trade, and interested in having only pure, wholesome teas imported into the United States, have appeared before that committee and set forth their various grievances and the difficulty of enforcing the old law. That law provided for inspectors to be appointed from men who were importers. Of course it was only human nature for those merchants to favor each other sometimes, and to favor themselves always in their decisions, and there was no appeal except to this board of merchants. The consequence is that the importation of poor teas into this country has increased.

"This bill is the result of the united efforts of the people engaged in the tea trade, the people anxious for wholesome food, the Treasury Department, the Senate of the United States, and the Committee on Ways and Means. A bill nearly identical in language and entirely identical in character was recommended by the Ways and Means Committee some days ago, and reported unanimously from that committee to the House. This particular bill was introduced into the Senate, and referred to the Committee on Commerce there, was unanimously reported to the Senate by that committee, and was passed by the Senate and sent

over here this morning. In brief, the bill provides that the Secretary of the Treasury shall appoint seven inspectors of tea in the United States, to be chosen from those who are experts in tea. These seven men are to receive each a salary of $50 a year, to be paid out of the moneys appropriated for customs expenses.

"They are to meet every year and establish uniform standards of purity and fitness for consumption, which standards are to be embodied in samples. Those samples are to be duplicated. There will be one at New York, one at Chicago, one at San Francisco, and the others are to be at such other places of import as the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate, and with those samples all importations of teas are to be compared. If the importation comes up to the samples, it can come in free of duty for consumption in the United States. If the importation does not come up to the standard, it is to be re-exported and excluded from consumption here."

Patent Laws.-The Congress passed, and the President approved March 3, 1897, an act revising and amending the statutes relating to patents, as follows:

"Be it enacted, etc., That section 4886 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same hereby is, amended by inserting on line 4, after the word 'country,' the words before his invention or discovery thereof,' and on line 5, after the word thereof,' the words or more than two years prior to his application,' so that the clause so amended will read as follows:

"SEC. 4886. Any person who has invented or discovered any new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvements thereof, not known or used by others in this country before his invention or discovery thereof, and not patented or described in any printed publication in this or any foreign country before his invention or discovery thereof, or more than two years prior to his application, and not in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years prior to his application, unless the same is proved to have been abandoned, may, upon payment of the fees required by law and other due proceeding had, obtain a patent therefor.'

"SEC. 2. That section 4920 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same hereby is, amended by adding to the third clause of said section after thereof' and before 'or' the following words: 'or more than two years prior to his application for a patent therefor'; so that the section so amended will read as follows:

"SEC. 4920. In any action for infringement the defendant may plead the general issue, and, having given notice in writing to the plaintiff or his attorney thirty days before, may prove on trial any one or more of the following special matters:

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First. That for the purpose of deceiving the public the description and specification filed by the patentee in the Patent Office was made to contain less than the whole truth relative to his invention or discovery, or more than is necessary to produce the desired effect; or,

"Second. That he had surreptitiously or unjustly obtained the patent for that which was in fact invented by another, who was using reasonable diligence in adapting and perfecting the same; or,

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Third. That it has been patented or described in some printed publication prior to his supposed invention or discovery thereof, or more than two years prior to his application for a patent therefor; or,

"Fourth. That he was not the original and first inventor or discoverer of any material and substantial part of the thing patented; or,

"Fifth. That it had been in public use or on sale in this country for more than two years before his application for a patent, or had been abandoned to the public.

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And in notices as to proof of previous invention, knowledge, or use of the thing patented, the defendant shall state the names of the patentees and the dates of their patents, and when granted, and the names and residences of the persons alleged to have invented or to have had the prior knowledge of the thing patented, and where and by whom it had been used; and if any one or more of the special matters alleged shall be found for the defendant, judgment shall be rendered for him with costs. And the like defenses may be pleaded in any suit in equity for relief against an alleged infringement; and proofs of the same may be given upon like notice in the answer of the defendant, and with the like effect.'

"SEC. 3. That section 4887 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same hereby is, amended by inserting on line 1, after the words 'no person,' the words otherwise entitled thereto,' and on line 3, after the words 'caused to be patented,' the words by the inventor or his legal representatives or assigns,' and by erasing therein all that portion of the section which follows the words in a foreign country,' on lines 3 and 4, and substituting in lieu thereof the following: unless the application for said foreign patent was filed more than seven months prior to the filing of the application in this country, in which case no patent shall be granted in this country,' that the section so amended will read as follows:

"SEC. 4887. No person otherwise entitled thereto shall be debarred from receiving a patent for his invention or discovery, nor shall any patent be declared invalid, by reason of its having been first patented or caused to be patented by the inventor or his legal representatives or assigns in a foreign country, unless the application for said foreign patent was filed more than seven months prior to the filing of the application in this country, in which case no patent shall be granted in this country.'

SEC. 4. That section 4894 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same hereby is, amended by striking out the words 'two years' in every place where they occur and substituting in lieu thereof the words "one year"; so that the section so amended will read as follows:

"SEC. 4894. All applications for patents shall be completed and prepared for examination within one year after the filing of the application, and in default thereof, or upon failure of the applicant to prosecute the same within one year after any action therein, of which notice shall have been given to the applicant, they shall be regarded as abandoned by the parties thereto, unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Patents that such delay was unavoidable.'

"SEC. 5. That section 4898 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same hereby is, amended by adding thereto the following sentence:

"If any such assignment, grant, or conveyance of any patent shall be acknowledged before any notary public of the several States or Territories or the District of Columbia, or any commissioner of the United States circuit court, or before any secretary of legation or consular officer authorized to administer oaths or perform notorial acts under section 1750 of the Revised Statutes, the certificate of such acknowledgment, under the hand and official seal of such notary or other officer, shall be prima facie evidence of the execution of such assignment, grant, or conveyance'; so that the section so amended will read as follows:

"SEC. 4898. Every patent or any interest therein shall be assignable in law by an instrument in writing, and the patentee or his assigns or legal representatives may in like manner grant and convey an exclusive right under his patent to the whole or any specified part of the United States. An assignment, grant, or conveyance shall be void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for a valuable consideration, without notice, unless it is recorded in the Patent Office within three months from the date thereof.

"If any such assignment, grant, or conveyance of any patent shall be acknowledged before any notary public of the several States or Territories or the District of Columbia, or any commissioner of the United States circuit court, or before any secretary of legation or consular officer authorized to administer oaths or perform notarial acts under section 1750 of the Revised Statutes, the certificate of such acknowledgment, under the hand and official seal of such notary or other officer, shall be prima facie evidence of the execution of such assignment, grant, or conveyance.'

"SEC. 6. That section 4921 of the Revised Statutes be, and the same hereby is, amended by adding thereto the following sentence:

But in any suit or action brought for the infringement of any patent there shall be no recovery of profits or damages for any infringement committed more than six years before the filing of the bill of complaint or the issuing of the writ in such suit or action, and this provision shall apply to existing causes of action; so that the section so amended will read as follows:

"SEC. 4921. The several courts vested with jurisdiction of cases arising under the patent laws shall have power to grant injunctions according to the course and principles of courts of equity, to prevent the violation of any right secured by patent, on such terms as the court inay deem reasonable; and upon a decree being rendered in any such case for an infringement the complainant shall be entitled to recover, in addition to the profits to be accounted for by the defendant, the damages the complainant has sustained thereby; and the court shall assess the same or cause the same to be assessed under its direction. And the court shall have the same power to increase such damages, in its discretion, as is given to increase the damages found by verdicts in actions in the nature of actions of trespass upon the case.

"But in any suit or action brought for the infringement of any patent there shall be no recovery of profits or damages for any infringement committed more than six years before the filing of the bill of complaint or the issuing of the writ in such suit or action, and this provision shall apply to existing causes of action.'

"SEC. 7. That in case where the head of any department of the Government shall request the Commissioner of Patents to expedite the consideration of an application for a patent, it shall be the duty of such head of department to be represented before the commissioner in order to prevent the improper issue of a patent.

"SEC. 8. That this act shall take effect Jan. 1, 1898, and sections 1, 2, 3, and 4, amending sections 4886, 4920, 4887, and 4894 of the Revised Statutes, shall not apply to any patent granted prior to said date, nor to any application filed prior to said date. nor to any patent granted on such an application."

Mr. Draper, of Massachusetts, said, in explanation of the measure, on reporting it to the House:

"Mr. Speaker, this bill proposes half a dozen minor amendments to the patent law which have been recommended unanimously by the American Bar Association. A year ago or more a committee of